Mike
11/25/2007, St. Mary's, GA

Beaufort, SC to Ferandina, FL - Friday and Saturday, November 16th & 17th

The wind was down this morning and it looked like a perfect day to bag the ICW and head out into the Atlantic. The ICW in Georgia has not dredged for years and there are many sections where there is not enough water for us unless it's at high tide. We've been planning to miss Georgia, it has just been a matter of finding a good weather window for the trip.

We spoke with "Restless" and decided to take a walk around town before departure. We had been advised by the "Madcap" Sailors to pay for the walking tour, which we were planning, but weren't sure we wanted to wait until later in the day. From a purely aesthetic point of view Beaufort, SC was wonderful. All the streets were shady... as well as the homes. Live oaks, Spanish moss, and palm trees made up the canopy, but below that there was vegetation everywhere. There were very, very few new homes and the ones we did see were built as replicas of the antebellum residences that dominate.

Although there were Shoppe's, there was nary a sign of a worthwhile establishment like a Hardware, Radio Shack, or Grocery. They are all located "out" on the highway.

At about 10 am we were off...out the Beaufort river and into Port Royal Sound to the ocean. Due to shoals at the mouth of the sound, we had to follow the channel out for about 6 miles so we really didn't turn south until about 1pm. The wind was out of the west northwest and we had all our sails up, but it just wasn't enough to make much progress and we really didn't want to be out here when the winds switched to the south and picked up tomorrow. So...the engine was running most of the trip. There were a few hours that we could turn off the noise and sail at 3.6 to 4 knots for a few hours which was wonderful.

Kathy and I fared much better on this our second overnight cruise in the Atlantic. She went below to rest at about 11pm and was supposed to relieve me at 1am but she turned off the watch clock when the alarm went off and grabbed another couple of hours of sleep. A little before 3 she popped up ready for her watch.. My watch was uneventful except for sea monsters and giant squids all around the boat... which turned out to be dolphins. There we no freighters, ships, barges or other commercial traffic to liven up the evening to follow on radar and calculate their courses. I was going to wake Kathy at 4am but was happy to see her at 3.

I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep before working our way into the Fernandina Beach Inlet just after dawn. Once inside we motored to the west into the St Mary's River through a huge marsh and anchored off the town of St. Mary's Georgia. At about 8:30 am. after stowing all our gear, we took naps and read until about noon.

After lunch we went exploring in the dinghy and spoke with some friends that we had met along the way. We are here early and many of the folks we've met on the way will be arriving in the days preceding Thanksgiving. We were back on Sapphire for the Michigan State Football game and were pleasantly surprised that our new coaching staff was able to make adjustments on the fly....which is a problem we've been plagued with for years.

There are fresh shrimp for sale here... but before replenishing our stock we had a few in the refrigerator that needed to be eaten. After getting them ready, Kathy made some rice and I chopped some Manitoulin garlic which went into the cast iron frying pan along with like amounts of olive oil and butter, and some red wine. When the wine reduced to about half, I added the shrimp. After just a couple of minutes they were perfect and went on the rice which was then topped with the sauce. Kathy make a salad of cucumbers, onions and sour cream...(sorry no fresh dill) and we heated up a can of green beans which are rapidly becoming our favorite default when fresh vegetables are unavailable.

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Mike and Kathy
11/15/2007, Rock Creek, SC

Out of Charleston... November 14th

Leaving Charleston on the ICW there is a restricted bridge that is closed during rush hour. 9:00 am is its first opening of the day which gave us an extra hour or so to waste drinking coffee. Today's trip was almost entirely in marshland, swamp, or low country, depending on where you are from. We traveled various rivers and creeks which were connected by short channels. Even when in one of the wider rivers, we had to constantly keep an eye on the GPS and sounder to stay within the deeper water.

In places there were nice homes with amazingly long docks... 300 to 400 yards, out into the river. Most of the time though we were motoring through what seemed to be one huge marsh. Although there were very few trees, we did see Spanish moss for the first time as well a natural palm trees (Let me interject, I think they're called palmettos). We had the occasional dolphin for company, but so far no alligators.

We stopped for the night at Rock Creek with about five other boats. Rock Creek is about 20 miles from Beaufort, SC and just outside the Ashepoo - Coosaw cut which, at the point where this cut dumps into the Coosaw, there is a shoaling problem. We can only get through by waiting for the tide. Our plan is to attack this spot at about 8:30 as the tide is coming in... that way if we have a problem the rising tide will lift us off.

There is a cold front coming through with forecast winds of 20 to 24 mph...which doesn't even phase us after staying at anchor as hurricane Noel passed at sea.

Kathy here..I am the editor of Mike's writing (and I do miss some things), this seems to be the pattern we have fallen into of late. I just want to say that today was a shorts and t-shirt day and when we got anchored I thoroughly enjoyed sitting in the cockpit, watching the tide go out and listening to the birds. We also had another beautiful sunset.

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Mike and Kathy
11/13/2007, Charleston, SC

Charleston with Scott and Meg - November 10-13

Saturday...

The morning was spent putting Sapphire in shape for a visit for Scott and Meg. I went to shore with trash and had a nice visit with the "Madcap" Sailors who also are entertaining this weekend. Our long time friends arrived around noon and after getting situated, we were off to Market Street which is the heart of old Charleston. We wandered around most of the afternoon and evening stopping at a rooftop restaurant for a snack and then decided on the Noisy Oyster for dinner. It was cool with temps in the low 60's and a steady breeze off the water. Kathy and Meg did a little shopping at the Market, but there were too many people in a rather small area for them to spend much money.

We returned to the boat to a head (toilet) problem that just about drove us all out, but talked til midnight before finally getting to bed. The problem was fixed in the morning... but we all suffered most of the night.

Sunday...

With the rare opportunity of a car, we were all off to Best Buy to purchase satellite radio. We have a radio that is "satellite ready", but we really didn't know what that meant. By the time we hit the third Best Buy store, we had a reasonably good idea of what we needed and finally made the purchase. Then, it was back to the City for lunch at the King Street Grille. There was a Veterans parade going on a little later so we got the sneak preview on our way downtown. After a wonderful lunch we returned to the City Dock where we had left our dinghy and said good bye to some of our oldest friends (well, they are not the oldest, we have known them longer than most)... who had a 3 plus hour drive ahead of them to get home.

The remainder of the day was spent ... removing our radio, wiring in the new XM tuner, and then listening to Illinois Basketball as I replaced the radio and cleaned up my mess. We now have CNN, ABC and BBC news as well as about any kind of music that a person might want to listen to. We have both Right wing and Left wing ... channels, as well as books on tape and Ohpra.

We are paying $13 a month to listen to MSU Basketball without Gus.... (Who may or may not have been institutionalized since last season.) Everything else is fluff.

The old part of Charleston is just almost exactly as I pictured it. Wonderful homes, narrow streets and a mix of vegetation. Most of streets downtown are lined with palms. It was fun and friendly.

Monday...

Our main goal for today was to get our laundry done... It has been too long and I was down to my last pair of jeans. There is a laundromat close by, and we there early and had all but one of the washers in use. I left Kathy there and made a trip back to the boat to pick up our water jugs which I filled at the dinghy dock and then ferried them back to the boat. Then it was back to shore to retrieve Kathy and all our clean cloths. After putting away the cloths and having lunch, we walked in to the old city for some site seeing and shopping. On our return we stopped at a nice grocery store and bought two back packs full of stuff which we then carried back to the boat.

We had a pot of chili in the refrigerator that we had planned on eating with Scott and Meg, but we ended up eating out while they were visiting.... so Steve and Carol came over in the evening to help us finish it off for supper.

Tuesday...

Another beautiful day. The boat was soaked with dew this morning so I was down on the hull at about 7:30 to get a least on layer of salt off. Later, we hauled the dinghy on deck to attempt to fix the leak that has been bothering us for the entire trip. The seam between the tube and the fiberglass floor has been slowly coming un-glued for the last few years. If people get 10 years out of a dinghy, they are happy. Ours is a 1991 classic, one of the first Ribs (rigid bottom) ever made and it has served us well over the years (as well as the previous owners) However, we know that it needs replacing. We are trying to get just a few more months of it as we determine exactly what brand we want to purchase.

Kathy here-We had shorts and t-shirts on while reading books in the sun and waiting for the dinghy patching to dry. I also cleaned and waxed some stanchions and other stainless. When Mike thought the dinghy patch was cured, we launched the dinghy and went to shore to do a little more laundry that we couldn't really carry yesterday.

Carl and Marilyn arrived on "Discovery" this afternoon, but we have not talked to them. We are planning on leaving tomorrow to go half-way to Beaufort, SC. We are planning to go out to the ocean on Friday to head for Florida-St. Mary's maybe (which is actually Georgia). They reportedly have a fantastic Thanksgiving celebration for cruisers there.

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